"You are going away, Roberto," she whispered.
"My love! Yes! To-night--this very hour I must go! Luis and
Dare also. Do not weep. I entreat you! My heart is heavy,
and your tears I cannot bear."
Then she answered, with a noble Composure: "I will give
you smiles and kisses. My good Roberto, so true and kind! I
will try to be worthy of you. Nay, but you must not weep--
Roberto!"
It was true. Quite unconsciously the troubled husband and
father was weeping. "I fear to leave you, dear Maria. All is
so uncertain. I can only ask you two favors; if you will
grant them, you will do all that can be done to send me away
with hope. Will you promise me to have nothing to do whatever
with Fray Ignatius; and to resist every attempt he may make to
induce you to go into a religious house of any kind?"
"I promise you, Roberto. By my mother's cross, I promise
you!"
"Again, dear Maria, if you should be in any danger, promise me
that you will do as Antonia and Lopez Navarro think it wisest
and best."
"Go with God, my, husband. Go with God, in a good hour. All
you wish, I will do."
He held her to his heart and kissed her, and she whispered
amid her tender farewells to himself, messages to her soils--
but especially to Juan. "Will you see Juan? If you do, tell
him I repent. I send him a thousand blessings! Ah, the
dear one! Kiss him for me, Roberto! Tell him how much I love
him, Roberto! How I sorrow because I was cross to him! My
precious one! My good son, who always loved me so dearly!"
At length Isabel came in to weep in her mother's arms.
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